“I hope you didn’t”: Letter to Mr d’Aubigny of February 28, 1678, in Langlois (ed.), Lettres II, no. 149, 224.
“and if you don’t”: Letter to Mr d’Aubigny of February 27, 1678, in ibid., no. 148, 223.
“Don’t let her”: Letter to Mr d’Aubigny of February 28, 1678, in ibid., no. 149, 224–9. This long letter has been compressed here.
“that poor creature Garé”: Letter to Mr d’Aubigny of July 11, 1683, in ibid., no. 316, 502.
“he was still sitting”: Visconti, 107.
“The brazen throat”: Milton, Paradise Lost, ll. 713–18.
“This year has been”: Vallot, d’Aquin, et Fagon, Journal de la Santé du Roi Louis XIV de l’année 1647 à l’année 1711, écrit par Vallot, d’Aquin et Fagon, ed. Le Roi, J. A. (Paris: A. Durand, 1862), 141.
“sceptre”: See Fraser, 95.
“The Queen of Spain”: Letter to Madame de Grignan, September 15, 1679, in Sévigné II, no. 581, 445.
“The Spanish ambassador”: Visconti, 134.
“horribly muddy in winter”: Villars, Pierre de, Mémoires de la Cour d’Espagne de 1679 à 1681, ed. M. A. Morel-Fatio (Paris: Plon, 1893), 4. Madrid had been the capital of united Spain only since 1561, following a planned temporary move from Toledo.
a thousand conquistadores: See Elliott, J. H., Imperial Spain, 1469–1716 (New York: Mentor, 1966), 62 and passim.
“soporific mental climate”: Ibid., 366.
“very few tradesmen”: Villars, 4.
“living death”: Elliott, 365.
“The King of Spain is shorter”: Villars, 8–11.
“a rachitic and feeble-minded weakling”: Elliott, 355–6.
“A daughter must obey”: Molière, Le Tartuffe ou l’Imposteur, Act II, scene iii, 925.
“The people are saying”: Letters to Madame de Grignan of September 18, 20, 22, and 27, 1679, nos 582–4 and 586, in Sévigné II, 445 ff.
“The Queen of Spain was rather”: Villars, 11.
Twelve: The Poisons Affair
“enemy of the human race”: Somerset, Anne, The Affair of the Poisons: Murder, Infanticide and Satanism at the Court of Louis XIV (London: Phoenix, 2004), 1 and passim, chapter 1.
“It’s over at last”: Letter to Madame de Grignan, July 17, 1676, in Sévigné, Marie, marquise de, Lettres, 3 vols (Paris: Pléiade, 1960), II, 145.
“an elaborate raised pie”: Somerset, 14.
“extraordinary fits of vomitings”: Ibid., 13.
“no man with four millions”: Visconti, Primi, Mémoires sur la Cour de Louis XIV, 1673–1681 (Paris: Perrin, 1988), 157.
“the repression of blasphemers”: Saint-Germain, Jacques, La Reynie et la police au grand siècle (Paris: Hachette, 1962), 26.
“that the abbé Brigalier”: Segrais, Jean Regnault de, Segraisiana, ou mélange d’histoire et de littérature (Amsterdam: Compagnie des libraires, 1722), I, 54.
“Madame de La Fayette is drinking”: Letter to Madame de Grignan, October 20, 1679, in Sévigné II, no. 594, 480.
“In my job”: Extract from La Devineresse by Thomas Corneille and Jean Donneau de Visé, quoted in Saint-Germain, La Reynie, 108.
“Though I pretended not to be”: Visconti, 38 and passim.
“the King stood guarantee for me”: Ibid., 162,
“Men’s lives are up for sale”: Hilton, Lisa, The Real Queen of France: Athénaïs and Louis XIV (London: Abacus, 2003), 247.
“rare that it has extracted”: Somerset, 21.
“to have the question”: Evelyn, John, The Diary (London: Macmillan, 1908), March 11, 1651.
“interspersed with her shrieks”: Somerset, 287.
Place de Grève: A common place of public execution in Paris during the ancien régime, it is now the Place de l’Hôtel de Ville. During the seventeenth century, it was also a common place for unemployed day labourers to assemble, between four and six in the morning, hoping to be selected for a day’s work.
“They say the repercussions”: Letter to Monsieur et Madame de Grignan, February 23, 1680, in Sévigné II, 617.
“fat and sweaty-palmed”: Primi Visconti quoted in Richardt, Aimé, Louvois, le bras armé de Louis XIV (Paris: Tallandier, 1998), 154.
“the chiefest places in trust”: The English ambassador, quoted in Somerset, 224.
“His low stature was not”: Spanheim, Ezechiel, Relation de la cour de France, faite au commencement de l’année 1690 (Paris: Renouard [pour la Société de l’histoire de France], 1882), 340.
“A deceitful little hunchback”: Visconti, 84.
“the ugliest person alive”: Ibid., 84.
“He’s not a man”: Letter to Madame de Grignan and Mademoiselle Montgobert, January 31, 1680, in Sévigné II, no. 627, 593.
“provided he got his share”: Ibid., 71, for both quotations here.
“Yes, I have,” she retorted: Ibid., 160.
“All those involved”: Letter from Louis XIV to Colbert of June 28, 1676, quoted in Déon, Michel, Louis XIV par lui-même (Paris: Gallimard, 1991), 289.
“all the terrors of torture”: Somerset, 314.
“You couldn’t trust your friends”: Visconti, 162–3.
“Where on earth”: Letter to Madame et Monsieur de Grignan, October 25, 1679, in Sévigné II, no. 597, 484.
“If all the bad cooks”: Quoted in Somerset, 406.
“and I can assure you”: Visconti, 155.
“cunning and ingenious”: Somerset, 315.
“a strange cast of mind”: Ibid., 314.
“to free herself”: Somerset, 333.
“The Chambre Ardente”: Visconti, 155.
wounded On His Majesty’s Service: Letter to Madame de Grignan, July 14, 1680, in Sévigné II, no. 680, 777.
“[P]eople viewed [it] as a private court”: Visconti, 165.
“It’s all prejudice”: “Les Devineresses,” in La Fontaine, Jean de, Fables, ed. René Radouant (Paris: Hachette, 1929), Livre VII, no. 15, ll. 4–5, 260.
“[t]hey never found so much as”: Visconti, 158.
“whether it’s because of the climate”: Ibid., 165.
“incapable of abusing”: Choisy, Abbé Françoise-Timoléon de, Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire de Louis XIV, et Mémoires de l’abbé de Choisy habillé en femme, ed. Georges Mongrédien (Paris: Mercure de France, 1966), 205.
Thirteen: Madame de Maintenant
“No Spring, nor Summer”: John Donne, Elegie IX, The Autumnall, ll. 1–2.
“still attractive”: Choisy, Abbé Françoise-Timoléon de, Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire de Louis XIV, et Mémoires de l’abbé de Choisy habillé en femme, ed. Georges Mongrédien (Paris: Mercure de France, 1966), 262.
“No one knew what to think”: Visconti, Primi, Mémoires sur la Cour de Louis XIV, 1673–1681 (Paris: Perrin, 1988), 150.
“The most beautiful women”: Chamaillard, Edmond, Le Chevalier de Méré, rival de Voiture, ami de Pascal, précepteur de Madame de Maintenon (Niort: Clouzot, 1921), 1e partie, 161.
“Madame de Maintenon was good-natured”: Choisy, 262 & 265.
“She has shown him”: Letters to Madame de Grignan, July 17 & 7, 1680, in Sévigné, Marie, marquise de, Lettres, 3 vols (Paris: Pléiade, 1960), II, nos 682 & 678, 785 & 770.
“The King doesn’t like to see”: Visconti, 124.
“He gives her more care”: Letter to Madame de Grignan, July 17, 1680, in Sévigné II, no. 682, 785.
“I’m naturally impatient”: Quoted in Langlois, Marcel, “Madame de Maintenon, ses oeuvres complètes, la légende et l’histoire,” Revue Historique, Vol. 168, September–December 1931, 298.
“His Majesty often spends”: Letters to Madame de Grignan, April 6, June 30, September 11, and June 9, 1680, in Sévigné II, no. 649, 670; no. 675, 762; no. 700, 845; no. 668, 736.
“Not all the ladies responded”: Spanheim, Ezechiel, Relation de la cour de France, faite au commencement de l’année 1690 (Paris: Renouard [pour la Société de l’histoire de France], 1882), 11, 17–19.
“God has sent Madame de Maintenon”: See the Notice to the Oraison de Marie-Thérèse d’Autriche, in Bossuet, Jacques-Bénigne, Oraisons Funèbres (Paris: Hachette, 1898), 217.
“to relax from the cares of state”: Choisy, 262.
“I’ve told [your manservant]”: Letters to Mr d’Aubigny, March 1679 & July 3, 1680, in Madame de Maintenon, Lettres, ed. Langlois, Marcel, Vols II–V (Paris: Letouzy et Ané, 1935–59), II, no. 184, 301, & no. 212, 345.
“Madame de Maintenon is the machine”: Letter to Madame de Grignan, July 7, 1680, in Sévigné II, no. 678, 770.
“The King has no galanteries”: Letter to Mr de Villette, August 14, 1681, in Langlois (ed.), Lettres II, no. 241, 395.
“I pray for a moment”: Letter to Mr l’Abbé Gobelin, January 8, 1680, in ibid., no. 205, 329.
“The duc de Vendôme”: Letter to Madame et Monsieur de Grignan, October 25, 1679, in Sévigné II, no. 597, 485.
“to deprive the faithful”: Quoted in Langlois (ed.), Lettres II, note 207, 339.
“a saint, but not very bright”: D’Aumale, Marie-Jeanne, Souvenirs sur Madame de Maintenon: Mémoire et lettres inédites de Mademoiselle d’Aumale, 2e ed. (Paris: Calmann-Levy, 1902), 81.
“Did she think”: Letter to Madame de Grignan, July 7, 1680, in Sévigné II, no. 678, 770.
“be careful what you say”: Letters to Mr d’Aubigny, July 3 & 6, 1680, in Langlois (ed.), Lettres II, nos 212 & 213, 346–7.
“She was almost unhinged”: Choisy, 205.
“She told her, in the clearest terms”: Ibid., 205–6, 265 & 248.
“suffocating in black bile”: Ibid., 206.
“was only fond of Madame”: Caylus, Marthe-Marguerite, comtesse de, Souvenirs, ed. Bernard Noël (Paris: Mercure de France, 1965 et 1986), 67.
“If my enemies fail”: Letter to Mr d’Aubigny, July 6, 1680, in Langlois (ed.), Lettres II, no. 213, 347.
“The King wasn’t ashamed”: Saint-Simon, Louis de Rouvroy, duc de, Mémoires, 7 vols (Paris: Pléiade, 1953), I, 38–9.
“I am not a dame d’atour”: Letter to Mr d’Aubigny, December 15, 1679, in Langlois (ed.), Lettres II, no. 200, 322–3.
“The light of her intelligence”: Spanheim, 49–51.
“The dauphin accepted his wife”: Visconti, 148.
“even if I saw him”: Letter of May 11, 1685, in Lettres de Madame duchesse d’Orléans, née Princesse Palatine, 1672–1722, ed. Olivier Ameil (Paris: Mercure de France, 1985), 97.
“He was a terrific eater”: Saint-Simon I, 886–7.
“and if she thinks:” Letter to Madame de Grignan et Mademoiselle Montgobert, February 14, 1680, in Sévigné II, 609.
“They were all talking”: Visconti, 151.
“Madame la dauphine has”: Letter to Mr d’Aubigny, June 25, 1684, in Langlois (ed.), Lettres III, no. 365, 54–5.
“I asked you to buy”: Letter to Mr de Guignonville, November 7, 1681, in ibid., II, no. 251, 411–12. Angola had been “presented” to Françoise by her cousin Philippe de Villette. He eventually went into the army, where he served until his death in 1704.
“And she thought just as much”: Saint-Simon, Louis de Rouvroy, duc de, Mémoires, 7 vols (Paris: Pléiade, 1953), I, 316.
“fourteen hundred thousand livres”: Caylus, 85.
“Madame de Montchevreuil was a woman”: Ibid., 69–70.
“The position wasn’t so much”: Ibid., 71.
“a very rich cousin”: Letter to Madame de Grignan of September 21, 1676, in Sévigné II, no. 464, 208.
“And besides”: Segrais, Jean Regnault de, Segraisiana, ou mélange d’histoire et de littérature (Amsterdam: Compagnie des libraires, 1722), I, “Sa Vie,” iv.
“You need to reason”: Letter to Mr le marquis de Montchevreuil, April 27, 1681, in Langlois (ed.), Lettres II, no. 226, 369–70.
“Mademoiselle de Laval”: Caylus, 71 ff.
“She’s too good”: Letter to Mr le marquis de Montchevreuil, May 2, 1681, in Langlois (ed.), Lettres II, no. 227, 371.
“Madame d’Heudicourt is here”: Letter to Mr d’Aubigné, February 20, 1682, in ibid., no. 258, 422.
“How ridiculous”: Letter to Madame de Grignan of July 17, 1680, in Sévigné II, no. 682, 786. This letter is possibly a composite.
“She never opens her mouth”: Caylus, 67 & 89.
“to stand up straight”: Letter to Mr de Villette, between April 1 & 5, 1678, in Langlois (ed.), Lettres III, no. 156, 241.
“like an affected little idiot”: Letter to Mr d’Aubigny, March 1679, in ibid., II, no. 184, 301.
“Here he comes”: Charles d’Aubigné as the character Théodecte, in La Bruyère, Jean de, Les Caractères ou les moeurs de ce siècle (Paris: Hachette, 1935), 33.
“No, don’t move to Paris”: Letter to Mr d’Aubigny, June 18, 1684, in Langlois (ed.), Lettres III, no. 364, 51.
“perfectly healthy”: Letters to Mr d’Aubigny, May 19, 1681 (interposed) & July 11, 1683, in ibid., II, no. 231, 375–7, & no. 316, 501–3.
for his maintenance: See, for example, the letters to Mr l’abbé Gobelin, July 24, September 28, & December 8, 1674, in ibid., no. 40, 87–90; no. 49, 100–1; & no. 59, 112–3. Langlois speculates, without providing convincing evidence, that Toscan was in fact the illegitimate son of Françoise herself and the maréchal d’Albret. See “Madame de Maintenon, ses oeuvres complètes…”
“a boy of twelve or thirteen”: Letter to Mr l’Abbé Gobelin, May 17, 1681, in ibid., no. 230, 374–5.
“I was in transports”: Letter to Mr de Villette, February 26, 1676, in ibid., no. 96, 161–2.
“I’ve told the King”: Letter to Mme de Villette, June 7, 1676, in ibid., no. 103, 170.
“but Seignelay said”: Letter to Mr de Villette, about August 2, 1679, in ibid., no. 190, 313.
“all naval officers”: Quoted in Villette, Philippe Le Valois, marquis de, Mémoires (Paris: J. Renouard, 1844), 177, note.
“either by supplying”: Quoted in ibid., 180, note.
“choking in little gulps”: Garrisson, Janine, L’Édict de Nantes et sa révocation (Paris: Seuil, 1985), 119 ff. The figure of one million, about 5 percent of the population, is for 1670, and includes both Huguenots (strictly, Calvinists) and Lutherans. See ibid., 46.
“There’s no knowing”: Letter to Mr de Villette, about February 9, 1678, in Langlois (ed.), Lettres II, no. 147, 222.
“only a thirty-six-cannon vessel”: Villette, 52.
“but we need not be:” Letter to Mr l’Abbé Gobelin, November 14, 1680, in Correspondance générale de Madame de Maintenon, ed. Lavallée, Théophile, 4 vols (Paris: Charpentier, 1857), II, 2e partie (suite), no. CCXXV, 135.
“Our little nephew”: Letter to Mr d’Aubigny, December 8, 1680, in Langlois (ed.), Lettres II, no. 217, 351.
“Monsieur de Saint-Hermine arrived”: Letter to Mr d’Aubigny, December 19, 1680, in ibid., no. 218, 352–3.
“God, who knows everything”: Quoted in Desprat, Jean-Paul, Madame de Maintenon, ou le prix de la réputation (Paris: Perrin, 2003), 201.
“They were astonished”: Caylus, 31.
“Although I’m quite sure”: Letter to Mme de Villette, December 23, 1680, in Langlois (ed.), Lettres II, no. 219, 353–6.
“Your letter makes me”: Letter to Mme de Villette, December 25, 1680, in ibid., no. 220, 356.
“obligingly”: Ibid.
“Don’t tell him”: Letter to Mr l’Abbé Gobelin, January 15, 1681, in Lavallée (ed.), Correspondance générale II, 2e partie (suite), no. CCXXXIV, 150.
“to the infinite glory”: Caylus, 31.
“They’re all leaving”: Letter to Mr d’Aubigny, February 5, 1681, in Langlois (ed.), Lettres II, no. 223, 361.
“I’ve been making her”: Letter to Mme de Villette, January 25, 1681, in ibid., no, 221, 358.
“My father’s letters”: Caylus, 31.
“I’m not even going to”: Letter to Mr de Villette, April 5, 1681, in Langlois (ed.), Lettres II, no. 225, 367.
“
Madame de Maintenon had only asked”: Caylus, 31.
“If the King lives”: Letter to Mr de Villette, April 5, 1681, in Langlois (ed.), Lettres II, no. 225, 367.
Fourteen: Uncrowned Queen
“The year 1678”: Dunlop, Ian, Royal Palaces of France (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1985), 122.
“this house is more”: Letter from Colbert to Louis XIV of September 28, 1663, quoted in ibid., 120.
“It abounds with stags”: Evelyn, John, The Diary (London: Macmillan, 1908), March 7, 1644, 36–7.
“rats’ holes”: Quoted in Dunlop, 112.
“a heap of chimneys”: Quoted in ibid., 167.
“Paris being the capital”: Quoted in ibid., 112.
“the heights of Chaillot”: Quoted in ibid., 213. This is broadly the area of today’s Trocadero and Eiffel Tower. Part of the Tuileries garden still exists.
“the most sad”: The duc de Saint-Simon, quoted in ibid., 135.
“It will not be possible”: Ibid.
“and don’t do anything”: Letter from Louis XIV to Louvois of November 8, 1684, quoted in Tiberghien, Frédéric, Versailles: Le Chantier de Louis XIV, 1662–1715 (Paris: Perrin, 2002), 74.
“I heard Monsieur”: Visconti, Primi, Mémoires sur la Cour de Louis XIV, 1673–1681 (Paris: Perrin, 1988), 152. A hundred million francs was about thirty-five million livres.
“22,000 men and 6,000 horses”: Entry for August 27, 1684, in Dangeau, Philippe de Courcillon, marquis de, Journal de la cour de Louis XIV, avec les additions inédites du duc de Saint-Simon, 19 vols (Paris: Firmin-Didot Frères, 1854–60), I, 48.
“We have two teams”: Letter from Colbert to Louis XIV of May 22, 1670, quoted in Tiberghien, 149.
for centuries: See ibid., 141.
“Consider how many”: Louis XIV, Mémoires, suivi de Réflexions sur le métier de Roi (Paris: Tallandier, 2001), 89.
“teetering constantly”: Bernard, Leon, The Emerging City: Paris in the Age of Louis XIV (Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1970), 119 and passim. See also Tiberghien, 124 and passim.
“So we can perish in symmetry”: See Lewis, 40.
“so overpowering”: Saint-Simon, quoted in Solnon, Jean-François, La Cour de France (Paris: Fayard, 1987), 319.
The Secret Wife of Louis XIV: Françoise d'Aubigné, Madame de Maintenon Page 54
